Sightron pics- view thru reticle

[Kiwi Nate]

Just thought I would drop in a pic or two of the Sightron S3 6-24x50.

Please bare in mind, it was a very cloudy, misty day- hence the haze in the picture. I used a basic canon digital camera to take the pics and was not able to crank the scope up past 6 power without suffering difficulty getting the pics so I left the scope at 6 power. I thought the 6 power setting was pretty good in itself, the tree line in the distance is 456 yards away. Some scopes wouldn't give as good a picture at 9 power.

I really like this scope in every way, the clicks, the side focus, the long eye relief and wide picture without any large black shadow as found on some cheaper brands. I have not really had a play with the dots yet but will get into it in due course. The rifle belongs to a hunter I have been coaching- here in New Zealand. Rifle is a factory Sendero .300 Winnie. I ground/polished the ali bedding block to stop it from vertical stringing. Apart from that, it has been a straight forwards rifle, very accurate, balances well and seems to produce less recoil than a lot of other rifles- nice stock design and weight well forwards.

Hope the pics are helpful, there seems to be a lot of interest in these scopes at the moment.

(Update- please note- pics of the mil dots on game are on page two of this thread)

Cheers, Nathan.

 

[Moman]

Nathan, thanks for sharing the pics. I've got the same scope on my 308 and really like it. Good quality optics and unbelievable repeatability. Spot on for sure.

 

[B23]

I think the SIII is alot of bang for the buck in fact one of the best IMO. For me their only downside is reticle choices or should I say that lack of. I like their optics I think they are great and I am ok with a mildot reticle I just wish the dots weren't so big on the SIII. They tend to cover to much of the target at longer distances. I've also heard their warranty is second to none which is nice if you ever need to use it. I've been a pretty big fan of the Bushy 6500 Elite lately, which I would put in the same class as the SIII, but Bushnell's customer service isn't even close to Sightrons.

 

[Moman]

B23, what do you mean by covering up too much of the target. I've heard others say that, but I'm just not seeing it. The point that is. Am I missing something? I've been shooting some pretty small rocks at distance and it seems fine.

 

[joseph]

Does anyone have one of the new Vortex Viper 6-24X50mm FFP ? How does it compare to the Sightron III ? The Viper has a great reticule.

joseph

 

[trebark]

I think the SIII is alot of bang for the buck in fact one of the best IMO. For me their only downside is reticle choices or should I say that lack of. I like their optics I think they are great and I am ok with a mildot reticle I just wish the dots weren't so big on the SIII. They tend to cover to much of the target at longer distances. I've also heard their warranty is second to none which is nice if you ever need to use it. I've been a pretty big fan of the Bushy 6500 Elite lately, which I would put in the same class as the SIII, but Bushnell's customer service isn't even close to Sightrons.

Generally speaking the dots in a mil-dot scope are .25 mils. Given that, they are generally the same size in all scopes. Of course there are exceptions to this rule.

 

[Kiwi Nate]

The dots do "seem" big at first but I believe its more to do with most of us only ever having used the finer duplex style reticles. In the above pic, at 6 power, the dots were indeed large but up at 24 power, it all came together and a dot covered only about 6" of the fence batton at 456 yards.

 

[freebird63]

I have the same scope on my sendero 300RUM, have not shot it yet and can't wait. On my wifes 300SAUM she has a sightron 4-14x42 with mil-dot and she loves it. I looked at a lot of scopes before I went with the sightron, not even leupolds were as good. It would be interesting to check out one of those Huskamaw scopes. But for the money I don't think you can go wrong with sightron.

 

[Kiwi Nate]

Ok, here are the dots on game. Range is 700 yards exactly. Feral goats- the billy that I am targeting has a chest depth of 14". The Sightron is set on 24 power. Again, please bare in mind that the pictures here are not an indication of the scope lens quality- it was quite difficult to get the most basic image using my digital camera.

 

[Moman]

On my wifes 300SAUM she has a sightron 4-14x42 with mil-dot and she loves it.

Freebird, is your wifes scope the S-II? If so. post a little about how it compares with the S-III. I have always wondered how they compare. Thanks.

 

[Pdvdh]

I've got two of these Sightron SIII scopes. This is a second focal plane (SFP) scope and the dots cover 4 times as much area at 6X as they will at 24X power. I have no problems with the size if the dots at 24X, which is what I use on long range shots. The Sightron SIII glass is better than the Vortex Viper glass according to one retailer that hunts and uses scopes and has compared both scopes. The Vortex PSTs are not yet available for comparison so I don't see how anyone could comment on the quality of the glass in the Vortex FFP or SFP PSTs. However it has been confirmed that the glass and coatings in the Vortex PSTs is the same Japanese glass and coatings as in the Vortex Vipers. However the Vortex PST optical design is different than the Vortex Viper, so the quality of the field of view, resolution & light transmission may differ from the Vipers due to the different optical design of the Vortex PSTs.

If the Vortex PST resolution & light transmission are as good as the Sightron SIII, then I'll be trying one of the PSTs. If not, I'll stick with the SIIIs myself, until something equally light weight and in the same quality of glass comes along with better reticle options.

 

[freebird63]

Not having shot my new gun & scope yet. Her sightron is awesome, I was going to get the same version until I looked at sightrons website and seen the S111's, I really wanted a scope that went to 24 power and had 50mm reticle and 30mm tube. I am curious about the next one above mine, I think its a 8-32x50mm with 30mm tube. The only thing about it that turns me off is that the lowest power is 8 power, now if it would have been 6 power I might have tried it instead. But I believe I will be very happy with the 6-24x50. As soon as this Idaho weather warms up and the desert dries out I am going to be getting my baby sighted in, I figure a zero at 200 yards and be accurate out to at least 1000 yards.

 

[Moman]

I have the S-III 6x24MD on my 308 and really enjoy the accuracy and repeatability of the turrets. I talked to one of the Sightron Techs about the S-II and he said they use the same internal adjustment as the S-III and are every bit as dependable in this area. Not sure about the clarity of the glass though, haven't looked through one.

I would love to see them come out with more reticle choices (wouldn't we all). If they did a MOA reticle, it would even make it better. I finally got the Mildot Master, so maybe I just need to force myself to learn something new. We'll see.

 

[Bravo 4]

Generally speaking the dots in a mil-dot scope are .25 mils. Given that, they are generally the same size in all scopes. Of course there are exceptions to this rule.

Close, but not correct. Most mildot scopes have the round dots (like the Army uses) and they are .2 mils in diameter.
Then you have the oval shaped dots used by the Marine Corps, those are .25 mils tall (on the verticle axis of the reticle and long on the horizontal).
The round dots are what almost all scope makers install and most will have a manual with the scope that shows the reticle's layout.